Colin and Peters escape from scrap
by Railway consultant
Summary: Colin and Peter have been on the run from diesels for a while. But when they go to a branchline and stumble upon a maintenance diesel, their lives are changed forever


Nearly everyone thinks England is great and I don't blame them for thinking that. People have successful jobs, educations, houses and families and that's only a portion of it. But for the locomotives that live there, it's a different story...

Everyone thinks that the modernisation project was the first real time an engine recall happened. But this was happening from the start with the Rocket being replaced. Modernisation was just one on a huge scale and it will probably happen with the diesels and if I'm there to see it, I will laugh.

Me (Peter) and Colin have been on the run for a while now, well I'm the one moving. Poor Colin was in two scrap wagons when I found him. His smokebox door is slightly open, his face has a few cuts and scars and not to mention he is in bits. He is alive though. Whether that's good or bad, I don't know but we have been surviving in various sidings, yards and even scrapyards on occasion for a very long time...

"Hey Colin, look out for any diesels will ya? Remember the class 58 two months ago?"

Colin just quietly moaned. He doesn't speak much.

"Is that a yes?"

"Yyyyeeeeesssssss..." He quietly moaned

"Great! There's a branch line over there. It doesn't run many trains from what I've seen so when the next one joins the mainline we go, k? "

"Oookkkkaaaayyyyy..." He quietly replied.

We waited for ages, well it felt like it anyway, the trains came hourly so it was only about thirty five minutes really but with nothing to do, it felt like an eternity.

One quick thing I should mention is that we can move on our own. My driver abandoned us back in the fifties and God knows what happened to Colins.

So when the next class 150 joined the mainline, I set of Carrying Colin behind me. We got a pretty big distance to. When we passed the third station and was coming up to the fourth, I spotted an abandoned yard. We were getting close to it but when we turned a bend we found something aweful...

So from what I gathered, the branch line is actually a busy place. Apparently though some track was undergoing heavy maintenance to the point where it was blocked off. We couldn't enter the yard, we couldn't even reach the next station.

We began to reverse, hoping we could at least reach the old siding a few miles back. Instead though we bumbed into another engine.

Colins eyes burst open letting out an oddly quiet scream. The strange looking engine jolted backwards and also screamed.

"Aaahhh!" The strange diesel shouted. " what are you? "

"What are we?" I asked

" well yes, I've only seen things like you in scrapyards. I didn't know what you were! " The small engine replied.

"Could say the same to you!" I hastily replied as I didn't want to lose an argument to a diesel.

"That doesn't matter. Listen, I know that you guys are supposed to be off the network so I'll move you to that abandoned yard over there. Just got to take a minor detour."

The strange diesel couldn't couple up as it had strange many hydraulics at the back and her face left no roo m for a cloupling. The hydraulics made it look like a vertical boiler exploded. With no couplings, it asked us to follow it back a few miles.

"This old route shouldn't really be used. It closed when the mine did in the thirties but I use it sometimes. Now start moving before we get caught."

The journey took a while and apparently was longer than it remembered, so me being me decided to talk to it. I mean it helped us and didn't bring us in, so I thought it might be friendly.

"What's your name?" I asked

" GR 1100" it said.

"What are you a robot?" I jokingly replied

" no I'm a maintenance loco. " it replied, sounding sad. Like it didn't like who it was.

"Like a Wickham trolley?" I asked

" God you are old! " she jokingly said "kind of, except i do the work for the staff instead of them doing it."

"Your name is aweful, sorry to change the subject. " I said

"It is. The other diesels think I don't deserve a name "if you don't permanently work on a line, you don't deserve a name!" It angrily shouted.

"Well let's change it!" I said far too enthusiastically .

"What too?... " She said glumly.

"Hannah?"

"What!" She asked

" you are a girl, right? "

"Yeah I am"

"Well that settles it then, Hannah it is!" I shouted gleefully, " no more GS 125 or what ever. "

She blushed and looked down at the rails beneath her. "Yeah. And it's GR 1100."

" Does it matter? "

"No. It doesn't! Ha ha ha!" She said with joy in her eyes.

When we rounded the next bend the branch line came back into view. We had to quickly reverse however, as two diesels rolled by having a chat about a certain engine.

They were both laughing hysterically.

"Wait, wait, really!" One said, still laughing at what the other said.

"Yeah! Stupid little maintenance diesel, her face is even on the back of her body!"

" Really! " It said in amazement.

"I know! Stupid little bi..."

By then, they had gone out of hearing range.

"Who were they talking about?" I asked

" Some other maintenance diesel, more of us are here. Now get moving, the yard 's just down there. I'll help. " She quickly blurted out, trying to change the subject.

She was right in one way. There were other maintenance diesels. But they were talking about Hannah. I had my suspicion. But no proof until later on.

Hannah guided me and Colin to the far corner of the yard, hidden by trees.

"Well, here you are." She said. " your welcome... " She didn't know our names, mainly because I never told her.

"I'm Peter, and the chap in the scrap is Colin." Finishing her sentance.

"Is he...alive?" Hannah asked curiously.

i then jolted forward violently, then I stopped just a second after, waking Colin from his peaceful slumber

"Wwwwhhhhaaaatttt iissss iiiitttttt..." He said before falling asleep again.

" oh my! " Hannah said, shocked.

"I know, well you should go, your still usefull, don't want to ruin that!"

" Yeah... "

Hannah backed out the yard but when she got halfway, the broken track caused her to derail. Not only that, she hit some old pipes causing them to fall and make a racket.

Soon after the incident, the controller of the railway and the maintenance fleet showed up, along with a crane.

"What the hell have you done?" Both controllers screamed in unison.

" I um. Well-um I um" Hannah stammered.

"You stupid cow!" The maintenance controller shouted while kicking her face with his boot.

i wanted to do something, but I didn't want to get caught either. That crane was blocking the only exit. So all I could do, was watch.

"Owch! Please! Stop!"

she started crying, still begging for the abuse to end.

"Pick her up, and mess with her throttle so she'll be harder to control. Make sure she feels it too.

After that, both me and Colin were in amazement, and not in the good way.

We waited until dark and made our way to the terminus station.

We both agreed that she would be there and sure enough, she was. We crawled through the yard, trying to find Hannah and the maintenance shed. After a while, we found her, but not in the best condition.

Her cab was nearly fully removed, her fuel tanks were leaking everywhere and someone gagged her mouth, presumably to stop the screams.

"Hello hannah..." I said smiling, trying to make her feel better.

She looked at me worried. She couldn't say anything though, due to the gag.

"Listen, when your fixed, we'll get you out of here. You can be free, like us!"

still she said nothing, obviously

"I'll take that your in on this and retrieve you when ready! Blink for yes, wink for no."

She blinked, still looking scared out of her poor mind.

Every night we checked on her. First she got worse, but them she got better. Turns out the workmen felt sorry for Hannah too. They even fixed her throttle.

Not a day after her repair she came to us early in the morning.

Wake up... Wake up... Wake up!

"What is it..." I said, still tired. Colin didn't even flinch.

"are we leaving?" She asked enthusiastically.

"Wait, now!" I asked.

"Wh-yeah! Why not!"

"five minutes... "

"We don't have five minutes! They're chasing me as I wasn't supposed to leave.

" What! "

Without a second warning, me and Hannah set off. Pulling Colin closely behind.

Before we know it, Dmu's, diesel locomotives and maintenance diesels were chasing us. And the mine line was a while away.

As one would expect, both controllers learned of the chase that was underway. So naturally, they entered the controllers private class 60 and went to investigate.

There were three lines on the branchline. The Maintenance diesels took the inner line and the DMU's and freight locomotives took the midline, waiting for the custom livery class 60 to take the lead.

All the two controllers knew was that Hannah was making a break for it, they didn't know me and Colin were tailing behind.

"What the helll is a steam engine doing here!? " the railway controller shouted, peering out the window, "is that cow harbouring them?"

Unfortunatly, Me and Hannah weren't built for speed. Neither was Colin but that didn't matter. He was slowing me down anyway. This meant that they gaining on us. However, we- well Hannah had a plan.

" On three, we go on the outer line. " Hannah said

"What, why? The entrance to the mine line is on the inner track!" I said, baffled why she would do this.

" just trust me, I know what I'm doing, ok? "

"Alright, let's do this" I worryingly said.

Some points were coming towards us, which we can control by ourselves. Don't ask how, I don't know myself really.

"On three. One...two... THREE!"

she shot into the mid line, not long after switching to the outer line.

When I made it across Hannah shouted:

"Close the points!"

I did so, within in inches of the back scrap wagon being derailed.

The maintenance diesel behind Colin breaked seeing us suddenly change lines. Because it did so the one behind it crashed into it and so did so the one behind etc. This caused a massive derailment causing the inner line to be unusable, and all the maintenance diesels could no longer pursue us.

When we made it to the outer line, the only locomotive able to get us was the class 60.

From what I remember, there were no points after the one we previously crossed. But it didn't matter anyway as soon a class 47 bit some stray pipe work from the maintenance that was taking place. Which, as you can guess, caused a massive derailment.

As it turns out, the outer line had no maintenance being done, which is why Hannah took us on that route. Or I think that was why, she never told me.

However, we weren't done yet, the class 60's were fairly modern at the time, meaning they could go at quite the speed.

Soon we were coming up to the small siding I mentioned at the start. We quickly swapped tracks into it. Hannah gave us strict directions not to close the point afterwards. I was skeptical, but she was right about that switching tracks. Which I was too unsure of, so I followed her instructions.

The class 60 was going too fast around the right bend to the siding. It turned the bend and came of the rails and into the field on the right. We reversed, not saying a word.

And like that, we were home free. Well temporarily anyway. British rail were looking for us now. I didn't like that as they weren't searching for me or Colin at all before but Hannah needed us.

Lots more stuff happened after this day, but I'll save those stories for some other time...


End file.
